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I think if DirecTV and Dish did merge rather than getting the best of both we would get the worst of both. That way they could maximize profits without having to worry about giving up subs to the other....

Just think, we could look forward to all HD being HD-Lite and the HD DVRs will all stop responding to the remote. Sounds like a win-win for stock holders and a lose-lose for consumers.

As noted earlier in the thread, DISH owns companies and has had the same primary ownership since it began. DirecTV has been owned by several companies over the years. For DISH changing owners would be a first ... for DirecTV changing owners is more routine.

I do not expect the companies to ever merge. Both companies may eye each other's bandwidth and wish they had it all, but at the end of the day reality takes hold.

As noted earlier in the thread, DISH owns companies and has had the same primary ownership since it began. DirecTV has been owned by several companies over the years. For DISH changing owners would be a first ... for DirecTV changing owners is more routine.

I do not expect the companies to ever merge. Both companies may eye each other's bandwidth and wish they had it all, but at the end of the day reality takes hold.

Plus Dish is eyeing the day when satellite is not the way to do business....looking pretty hard at this internet stream concept for service.

Well, they had better be looking at other ways of doing business. They've been running a distant second to DirecTV for many years. Imagine how poorly they'd perform without stealing patents and screwing content providers!

Saw that he's giving up on the whole Blockbuster thing today. Says it was a bad business choice. Shocking.

Rich

Is this the point where some of us get to tell Charlie "We told you so"?

A number of financial market pundits saw that acquisition as questionable right out of the gate. Those are just the kind of business decisions Charlie Ergen makes that render doubt about any merger actually happening.

A DirecTV run merged company would make up for all of the disadvantages of Dish. They would still face heavy competition on all fronts from other providers.

It would never be a "DirecTV run" company. Dish is not a company that can be gobbled up, they are financially stable and large enough to have a stake in what is to be done.

If these two companies ever merge, I would see it much more likely they will go the route of SiriusXM, with a merged name.

"DirecDish" is probably not an unlikely choice. Or a completely new name.

[Disclaimer] The definition of "soon" is based solely on DirecTV's interpretation of the word, and all similarities with dictionary definitions of the word "soon" are purely coincidental and should not be interpreted as a time frame that will come to pass within a reasonable amount of time.

So long as Dish is swallowed whole and the DirecTV way of business is maintained and HD picture quality is still valued...I have no problem with it.

Really? Screwed into a two-year extension of a contract just for making a phone call to ask a question ('the DirecTV way of business')? How is this going to be good for the consumer? 'HD picture quality?' Please, tell me more about pay-TV in this parallel universe YOU live in!

Plus Dish is eyeing the day when satellite is not the way to do business....looking pretty hard at this internet stream concept for service.

Until 40% of this country gets lifted from the "Internet Dark Ages", satellite isn't going anywhere. Half the people of this nation cannot get anything past 10 Mbps, and knowing that a decent HD stream is going to be around 6 to 7 Mbps, any household that wants to record 2 things and still turn on another TV in the house.... is going to need a minimum of 20 Mbps, and with internet being used by people, that is probably not going to be enough either.

For Internet delivered television to really be successful, you would need at MINIMUM a setup like U-Verse from AT&T, which is still delivered by copper lines but has a minimum profile rate of 25 Mbps on the VDSL line for television to be allowed as a service. (And again, it will still be limited to 3 HD, and it will eat in your bandwidth available for internet applications).

Internet delivered television might be a nice concept, but until everyone has 100 Mbps fiber pipes to their home, I see it as an additional service, not as a mainstream television provider. I believe Dish has a few international packages streamed via the Internet, and I see that as a great optional service. I actually would like DirecTV to do that for international news channels.

Bill Gates was already touting WebTV in the mid-90ies. But without the infrastructure, it will never replace traditional TV services. Not for decades.

[Disclaimer] The definition of "soon" is based solely on DirecTV's interpretation of the word, and all similarities with dictionary definitions of the word "soon" are purely coincidental and should not be interpreted as a time frame that will come to pass within a reasonable amount of time.

Really? Screwed into a two-year extension of a contract just for making a phone call to ask a question ('the DirecTV way of business')? How is this going to be good for the consumer? 'HD picture quality?' Please, tell me more about pay-TV in this parallel universe YOU live in!

/s

I've made many phone calls and e-mails to DIRECTV and NEVER have been 'screwed' into a two year extension just by asking a question. At least I haven't been conned into buying some hardware that had a new feature coming and then had DIRECTV change their minds and say it won't, like Dish did to me a couple times.

Do they? I don't see any model that has been proposed to replace them working economically.

I didn't say they would go away...but they will change dramatically.

Viewers (particularly young viewers) are developing direct relationships with content providers. Today, providers like HBO only offer their content to viewers with a cable or satellite subscription, but sooner or later everyone will have access to their library, either by direct subscription or PPV. While I'm not saying products like Roku is the final answer, it is an indication of where things are going.

It is economics that will drive the changes. As fewer and fewer viewers feel the need to have cable or satellite service, the costs of operating these systems will be borne by fewer and fewer subscribers. This will drive up costs to the consumer, which will drive more cord-cutting. We can see this already...if you total the subscriber numbers of all the cable and satellite companies, the total number has been decreasing...not by much, but there has been a steady erosion. The cable are companies are also seeing a sharper decline in multichannel revenue, but that is being at least partially offset by increases in internet services.

My son is a perfect example. He lives in Greenwich Village and has Time Warner Cable for internet only. He watches TV via his Xbox360 from Hulu, Netflix and Amazon.

Satellite has faired a bit better than cable, but that is only a temporary phenomenon. Satellite subscribers are a self-selected group of people for whom linear TV is important. But eventually, the trends that are driving cable will effect satellite as well.

It's not going to happen tomorrow, but it will happen. Remember that when DirecTV and Dish Network got started they weren't an "economically viabale" alternative to cable. They lost money for a decade. The same will be true for whatever comes next...maybe it won't be IPTV, but I have to give Charlie kudos for at least putting a toe in the water of the that market.

Until 40% of this country gets lifted from the "Internet Dark Ages", satellite isn't going anywhere. Half the people of this nation cannot get anything past 10 Mbps, and knowing that a decent HD stream is going to be around 6 to 7 Mbps, any household that wants to record 2 things and still turn on another TV in the house.... is going to need a minimum of 20 Mbps, and with internet being used by people, that is probably not going to be enough either...

True, slow internet service is a huge obstacle to IPTV in the US. There are many reasons for this state of affairs, but the fact that we had so much pre-existing infrastructure that can't support high speeds is a big factor. I honestly don't think it will be decades before that changes, but it will take a while. However, I don't think that indicates that Echostar/Dish is making a mistake by exploring the market.

"I think that companies like Dish will need to offer streaming services in order to compete in the future," he said. "So they need to figure out a way to cost effectively offer those services to consumers."

The article indicates the big problem was an inability to get the rights required to support streaming.